


Sam the Ham

by phantomthief_fee



Series: BATIM Drabbles [19]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Descent into Madness, Murder, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 09:02:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19059466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomthief_fee/pseuds/phantomthief_fee
Summary: One might think Sammy's dramatic nature as a prophet is a new development. It's not





	Sam the Ham

One might think that Sammy’s dramatic nature as a prophet of Bendy was a new development, but anyone who had known him before the studio’s downfall knew that Sammy had just always been like that. It honestly wasn’t surprising that he and Susie had been dating. They were the most dramatic people in the studio by far. It wasn’t uncommon for studio employees to come into work to find one or the other putting on some sort of performance. It was more amusing than anything else since they didn’t try to inconvenience anyone. At least not most of the time. 

A lot of employees did tend to get yelled at by him for their mistakes, but most everyone understood Sammy was all bark and no bite. So they took the yelling when they played a section wrong or, in Wally’s case, when they lost their keys. They knew he wasn’t trying to be malicious because it was pretty easy to tell when he was  _ **actually**_ angry or upset. He got quiet when he was genuinely upset. At least, that was the case most of the time. They had yet to see anything different. In any case, his reactions to things could be a little disorienting sometimes. 

One day, Wally walked in to hear a sound like a dying cat coming from the music department. He immediately ran down, fearing that someone was hurt or worse. However, no one else seemed to be panicking. It didn’t take long to figure out that the sound was coming from Sammy’s office. There he found Sammy face down on his desk, making this awful noise while Jack patted his back. 

“Is…Is he okay?” Wally asked slowly. “Sounds like something’s dyin’.”  


“His pen broke,” Jack replied as if the horrifying sound emanating from the music director was normal.  


“That…That it?” He’d seen Sammy be dramatic before, usually over a band member playing a section wrong. God, that was a sight to see. If the band member wasn’t an asshole, and most of them weren’t, Sammy would generally apologize afterward. This whole sound thing was new.   


“Yep.” Jack nodded. “Give him a few minutes. He’ll be fine.”  


“Well, if ya say so.” Wally backed out, returning to his janitorial duties.   


Sure enough, when he returned almost half an hour later, Sammy seemed to be back to normal. He and Jack were hunched over some sheets of paper, presumably that day’s songs.

“It might sound better if we made this a flat,” Jack said, pointing to a note on the page.   


“I despise e flats,” Sammy replied without missing a beat. “They are the worst note.” Waly had to stifle a snort. Sammy had such weirdly strong opinions about the strangest things. He’d also said on more than one occasion that people who played the theremin were secretly witches. He never gave any context for this.  


“Well, I think it would sound better if that note was a flat.” Jack continued calmly.   


“I can bring Miss Campbell in if you wanna check?” Wally suggested. Both Jack and Sammy turned around, a bit startled by Wally’s sudden presence. 

“When did you get there?” Sammy demanded. “You nearly scared me half to death!”  


“You want me to get Miss Campbell?” Wally asked, glossing over what Sammy had said. Sammy sighed in frustration.  


“Yes, please.” He said.   


“Great! Be back in a minute!” Wally winked and did finger guns before running off to find Susie. He returned a few minutes later with Susie in tow. By this point, Jack and Sammy had started to argue about what kind of cake was better.   


“Chocolate is clearly superior!” Sammy said, banging his fist on the desk. “It is a flavor that has been around for centuries!”  


“So has vanilla!” Jack fired back. “Everyone likes vanilla! Chocolate is too overwhelming! Especially dark chocolate! It’s so bitter!”  


“Vanilla is far too cloyingly sweet!”  


“Sweet is better than bitter!”  


“I WILL CHOKE YOU WITH YOUR HAT!”  


“I WOULD LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY, LAWRENCE!”  


“Those boys.” Susie sighed and shook her head as if she hadn’t had a similarly heated argument with Allison over whether Clara Bow was a better actress than Greta Garbo.  


“So, uh, I got Miss Campbell.” Wally cleared his throat. Jack and Sammy whirled around, both looking absolutely furious. These looks quickly faded as they saw Susie.   


“So, what did you boys need me for?” Susie asked.   


“We need to see if a part of this song sounds better with a flat,” Jack explained.

“Even though e flat is objectively the worst note.” Sammy shot Jack a pointed glare. Susie giggled at this.  


“Alright, let’s see how this sounds.” She said, walking over and picking up the paper. She went through the song up until the point where Jack was suggesting the change in note. She then did both the sharp and flat versions of the note. It sounded pretty good to Wally, but he didn’t know all that much about music in the first place. 

“Dammit!” Sammy stood up, throwing his hands in the air.   


“Okay, so we’re changing it to an e flat.” Jack took the paper to pen in the changes. Sammy sat back down, folding his arms and fuming.

“There there.” Susie cooed, smoothing down Sammy’s hair.  


“It’s not that big a deal,” Wally said. “Dunno why you’re so upset.”  


“He’s not,” Jack waved his free hand dismissively. “He just likes hamming it up.”

“I am most certainly not a ham!” Sammy looked aghast, a hand on his chest in supposed horror.  


“I’ve seen you act like you’re dying when you get a papercut.” Jack looked over at Sammy with a smirk. “You’re at least a little bit of a ham.” Sammy went bright red, grumbling and hunching his shoulders more.  


“Well, if that’s it, I’m outta here!” Wally gave them all a mock salute and darted out.  


Sammy’s dramatic nature extended to romantic gestures as well. When he and Susie started dating, he would often surprise her with grand gestures that left the rest of the studio rolling their eyes. Sometimes Susie would enter her office to find it filled with flowers or a present waiting for her. The presents weren’t always lavish, but Susie always loved them. He would call her his angel and tell her that her voice put the choirs of Heaven to shame. The couple had also come to more than a few studio Halloween parties dressed in elaborate couple’s costumes. 

“Guess they’re winning the costume contest again.” Norman murmured, sipping at his punch. He’d decided to be the Headless Horseman.   


“Yep.” Jack nodded. He was a ghost. Just a sheet with holes cut in it for the eyes and his bowler hat on top.  


“Aw, man!” Wally stamped his foot. “I’ve got a really good one this year!” He’d decided to be the Wolfman this year and he’d made his own costume and everything.  


“Just accept it, Franks.” Norman patted his head. “You’ll never out-perform those two.”   


By the end of the night, both Susie and Sammy were drunk and doing little nose kisses while slurring out sweet words to one another. Both had lipstick marks all over their faces because both of them had worn lipstick. They were always like that, really. It made a lot of the other studio couples jealous. Everyone who was attracted to men was also jealous. Sammy, for all his dramatics, did seem like the perfect prince charming. 

“Why are they like this?” Thomas grumbled to himself after he and Wally had been called to fix a pipe in Sammy’s office, only to find Sammy and Susie sitting at Sammy’s desk and acting essentially like sappy teenagers. The whole time Wally and Thomas were fixing the pipe they had to listen to Sammy and Susie gush about how much they loved each other.  


“It’s just how they are.” Wally shrugged. “They’re just dramatic like that.” Everyone was pretty sure half of the sappiness of their relationship was just a performance. They both did like to perform. But they were pretty cute together. Wally felt a swell of pride when he remembered how he’d gently pushed the two of them together. Okay, maybe it hadn’t been gentle. But Sammy had been pining pretty hard, at least in Wally’s opinion.   


Thomas rolled his eyes, letting out a low groan. “As long as they don’t shoving their tongues down each other’s throats, I guess I can stand it.”  


“They’re not  **that**  couple.” Wally scoffed.  


“Could’ve fooled me.” Thomas snorted, allowing himself a small smirk. Now it was Wally’s turn to roll his eyes. He bit back the urge to call Thomas a grumpy old man, simply following him to the next pipe. 

For the most part, Sammy’s dramatics were a welcome source of entertainment for the studio employees. But as things started to downhill…He grew strange. When Susie lost her role to Allison, she and Sammy broke up in a predictably dramatic fashion. But there was nothing funny about the breakup. There was a screaming match that put everyone edge before Susie stormed out in tears, eyeliner running messily down her cheeks. Sammy didn’t come out of his office for the rest of the day, snapping at anyone who tried to talk to him.

Then came the Sanctuary. Sammy would come into the band room at random times, demanding everyone leave. Once everyone was out, he would dart from the projection booth down into the band room. He didn’t come out for a long time after that. No one was sure what he was doing in there, especially since anyone who looked in on the band room from the projection booth didn’t see him anywhere. 

“Do you think we should tell Mr. Drew about this?” A band member asked Norman.   


“What’s Mr. Drew going to do about it?” Norman sighed, shaking his head. “The man’s got his own peculiarities. Best to just leave them both alone.” The band members didn’t like this answer, but they nodded and accepted it. Norman wanted to tell them it would be fine, but he wasn’t sure if it would be. He’d have to look into just what Drew was doing in that basement. 

Normally a rather put together man, Sammy’s appearance quickly grew disheveled. There were large bags under his suddenly wild eyes, his clothes were stained and rumpled, and he was developing a scraggly looking beard. When he yelled, everyone flinched. It wasn’t a performance anymore. At least, it wasn’t a performance to  **him**.   


“You think Sammy’s alright?” Wally asked Jack one day. Sammy had been getting weirder, muttering about pleasing some ‘lord’ and spending more and more time alone. A few employees claimed they’d seen him wandering the halls wearing a Bendy mask in the late hours of the night.  


“I…” Jack let out a long exhale, taking off his hat to run a hand through his hair. “God, I don’t know anymore.” Wally gripped his mop tighter. He’d been hoping Jack would offer him some comfort. 

“Norman says I should just leave him alone.” Wally turned his gaze downward, to the river of ink in front of him. “But I’m worried. You don’t think he’s gonna end up like Miss Campbell, do you?” Susie had gone increasingly off the rails before just disappearing one day. No one Wally had asked knew where she’d gone. Jack didn’t say anything.   


“I’m just…gonna go upstairs,” Wally said after a moment or two of silence. “Um…Be careful, okay?”  


“Yeah yeah.” Jack waved Wally out.   


He really should have listened, in retrospect. Now he was laying on his back in a strange summoning circle while Sammy plunged a knife into his stomach. 

“This is for the best, Jack,” Sammy said, laughing with maniacal panic. “I’m fulfilling his will!” Jack couldn’t summon any words. It wasn’t a performance, not anymore. 

**Author's Note:**

> This started out really cute.....Then I made it sad.


End file.
